Hi,

I've had a miss for a few days in my 88 GTA, with TPI. I dumped in a bottle of Techron, and have put about 10 miles on the car, with no improvement yet. I put a timing light on all 8 plug wires, and there is plenty of current at each wire.

What I noticed last night was that the headlights are flickering in time to this engine miss. IE, the lights dim a little each time the miss occurs. All the lights do it, not just the headlights. Interior lights, and dash lights.

I am sure no one has ever had this problem before, but I just thought I would post it, and hope someone has some insight.

Could there be a wiring problem that is sucking voltage out of one plug wire and also out of the lighting ? The lights have been flickering like this ever since I got the car 3 years ago, but the miss just started a few days ago, out of nowhere.


Thanks for any input !

 

uh oh... sounds like you have a short thats drawing current away from allt eh other accessories... The dimming lights is because of a voltage drop in the electrical system. My s-10 had the same problem, the engine would miss/quit every so often... turned out the abs power cable was shorting out. Had to replace it.

 

24/7,

Check the power connections at the starter, battery, and fuse panel. Check the ground connections at the battery, chassis, and the engine ground straps.

I have little doubt that the miss is related to the voltage drop.

 

Vader and Dimented, thanks for the input. I'm sure you're right about the voltage drop being present. But... I checked the wires AGAIN, this time in the sunlight, and found one of them totally off the plug. I reattached it and now the miss is gone. The lights still flicker, probably, but I guess I'll deal with that later.

Been trying to track down the flicker problem for a while. I used to blow out the acc fuse a lot until I loosened up the fuse box. Whenever I tighten the fusebox up again, it blows out again, fairly soon. Can't find any frayed wires though, or anything to fix, so I just let it stay loose. Seems to work. When the fuse was blown, the headlight flickering stopped. I suppose that means the voltage drain was somewhere after the fusebox on the accessory lines....Hmmm....

Thanks again. Time for another test drive.

 

GTA,

You may end up dropping the fuse panel out of the footwell completely and unwrapping that huge bundle of spaghetti behind it.

 

Hi there,
I just had the same problem today. The car runs fine but misfires when idle, and the dashboard flickers simultaneously. Did you ever find out what was wrong?

 

Cause = miss

Effect = engine slows down briefly, alt also slows down briefly, alt output drops briefly, lights dim briefly

Not the inverse

You can't cure the cause by dinking with the effect.

If the car "misfires when idle" then it DOES NOT "runs fine". It is broken. Probably needs a set of spark plugs. Start there and ignore all the electrical stuff until you fix the engine.